Just My Opinion

When I was a kid our family used to go to Vashon Island for a couple weeks in the summer and stay at the beach. One year we invited three boys from the family of thirteen children across the street to come with us. At the beach, my dad made a soup made with wagon wheel shaped noodles.

On returning home, the boys often talked about this trip to Vashon, invoking the “wagon wheel soup“, to the consternation of their sisters, who were not invited. Those who did not go to Vashon objected to conversations that excluded anyone who was not there to experience it.

Eventually, any time two people got into exclusive talk within the context of a group conversation, the person who felt left out could call “Wagon Wheel Soup”, and the conversation would shift to a more inclusive tone.

In my own case, I have nothing against golf, but I deem offensive any golf related conversation that lasts, in my presence, more than a couple of minutes. And I call “Wagon Wheel Soup!”. Then I explain.

I think the phrase “Wagon Wheel Soup” should become part of the English language, so that when a portion of the group is left out of a conversation dominated again by the two men who were, in their 20’s, almost arrested in Central America, we have a simple reproach that must be adhered to, for the good of the group. Just my opinion.